Fall accidents, which occur as a result of not enough friction available between the floor and shoe bottom for the pedestrian to ambulate without slipping, are responsible for a great number of walkway accidents. For this reason, characterizations of how much friction pedestrians require to ambulate and how much friction is available between the foot or shoe bottom and the walkway surface are of great import.

This unique, new publication provides ten peer-reviewed papers which address the latest global research concerning how much friction pedestrians require during ambulation and how to measure best the friction available between the walkway surface and the shoe bottom. Topics include:

Biomechanics of Ambulation--explores different aspects of the relationship between age and pedestrian ambulation, significant because fall accidents exact a disproportionate toll on senior citizens.

Walkway-Safety Tribometry--presents novel ways of measuring friction, including the design of a simple, inexpensive ramp that can test the friction available between a whole shoe and a walkway-surface sample; and explores issues in tribometric testing of wet surfaces.

Walkway-Safety Standards Development--explores why it has been so difficult to achieve consensus in the development of walkway-safety standards, a difficulty that goes far beyond technical issues.